Sitting on the sofa, watching all the birds go by ...

The collar dove gives me a disparaging look as I lean out of the stable door to enjoy a cigarette. He seems almost oblivious as he sits atop the twin feeder hooks and, I sense the frustration that he’s unable to hang onto these feeders like the smaller avians do. Maybe he’s a little more disgruntled as I forgot to replenish the bird-table with feed at just the time the collar doves have found a way to squeeze under the tables roof. (Wood pigeons fail in this task, even after multitudinous attempts).

It’s remarkable the pleasure one receives from simply watching the house sparrows make a beeline for the pole mounted polycarbonate seed feeder, where they then hover themselves onto the perches. The seed flows from this particular feeder at a much greater speed than from the dove topped twin feeders so, they only deign to visit those when their feeder is in need of replenishment or, they wish to avoid a squabble with its current occupants. The dunnocks have really wised up to this free-flow of seed and eagerly hoover up the fallen grains.

It’s really quite remarkable that dunnocks, with their reputation for skulking solitary behaviour, are evident in such abundance in this area of the garden.

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Yesterdays posting, ‘Dreams or Passion?’, can be found on Mal’s Murmurings

A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall

A day of food and thunder, comestibles and hailstones, donner und blitzen and, quelling the stomach’s rumble. Though much of the morning was spent in the duvet realm, a mid-morning glimpse of alertness was fuelled by bacon and black pudding prepared by my beloved. My sole exercise was provided by a visit to the local shops at lunchtime, to pander to my nicotine craving. The chilling icy wind, on this brief excursion, proferred no clues as to subsequent meteorological events.

On return from the shop I set to preparing a salmon and pepper savoury rice dish, to share with my beloved. After a brief interval, allowing the meal to be properly digested, my thoughts returned to food. This time, preparation of a casserole for Sunday lunch was the priority. First, I sweated a generosity of onions in paprika, turmeric, ginger and garlic imbued olive oil, before adding four chicken breasts to the equation. More lashings of paprika and ginger were called for, as the chicken sizzled, before adding a generous portion of red and green peppers, sliced mushrooms and, having diced the sizzling breasts with a wooden spatula, a tin of plum tomatoes, to the mix. Of course, it’s impossible for me to utilize plum tomatoes without adding lots of freshly ground black pepper to the mix, so the act was dutifully performed.

Midway through these preparations, a peal of thunder proved a little distracting, especially as it followed the lightning flash within a second. The lightning strikes were obviously quite localized, so a disconnecting of the TV aerial was called for, before heading back to the kitchen. Transfer all ingredients from griddle pan into a couple of casserole dishes and top them up with some chicken and vegetable gravy. Finally, I popped the casseroles into a medium heat oven to simmer for a while, before transporting myself to the living room.

All the while torrential rain was much in evidence, and this suddenly transformed into hailstones which seemed intent on finding a way to break through the double glazing. At the moment we’re feeling quite under siege, hemmed in by howling winds, hailstones, and a thunderstorm.

All that remains to do is turn up the fire, open a decent bottle of wine and, catch up on some videos or DVD’s – but perhaps a little snack will also be in order!

Meantime, the thought occurs to me that the garden pond was already close to the point of overflow before this latest downpour. I trust that the fish are safely ensconced amidst the planters and clay pipes at the bottom of the pond; I’d hate to think of them getting washed away!

Nothing Ventured ...

Having been thwarted on my excursion to ‘Open Church’ yesterday, owing to a marked lack of stamina, this morning I ventured there through the pouring rain. My first change of venue this week, energy reserves having been very low since Monday’s “scrape hard, hammer light” defrosting session! It’s strange really how little exertion is required to knock my progress off track.

Yesterday, I managed to make it as far as the local Post Office / Newsagent before my body cried enough; there’s no doubt that I could have made it down to St Marks but, I feared that I wouldn’t have had sufficient resilience to exercise my usual scintillating conversational skills. Today, despite getting well and truly rain bedraggled en route, I still managed to sustain an hour of conversation with sundry semi-kindred spirits.

Our thoughts have been with Beth, moving house on such a rain tormented day but, not sufficiently so to offer an (un)helping hand. The spirit may be half-willing but the flesh is well and truly weak!

Raindrop Overture

Morning arrived, bogged down in an intensity of rain; it’s rapping at the window awakened me from quite sound sleep. Each drop-fall, on the skylight window, resonated through the loft-space and tumbled down the steps.

A young blackbird rakes around in the undergrowth, sheltered by the buddleia, as the rain eases; it’s rather like watching a seasoned beachcomber at work. Watching this activity, I feel at ease with the world, milkily grizzled sky and all; it’s almost as if the bird is turning leaves and soil for pleasure, rather than as part of an endless quest for survival. At this time of the year, worms and grubs are in plentiful supply, so its living is easy.

I celebrate this abundant supply. Today I am grateful, for the food in my belly, a roof over my head and, the abundant supply of love which constantly nurtures me. The raindrops may be falling on my head but, it’s certainly not raining in my heart.

As I sit here typing, the rain has all but left us for the moment and, sparrows wallow in the birdbath, as if they haven’t a care in the world.

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A new draft poem on the raindrop theme has been posted on Mal's Factory this morning.